WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.040 It was the only elevator in the bell Bent building 2 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:09.039 with real brass on the panel, A button's dell to 3 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:12.000 petal pill gold by decades of cleaning. I ran my 4 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:14.119 thumb over seven, the last four in this old lady's 5 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:16.960 official repertoire, then counted up from lobby, as I always did, 6 00:00:17.079 --> 00:00:21.679 half by habit, half in boredom. One two, three, four, five, six, seven, 7 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:25.960 seven stories seven chances a night sawtle and insalmniact manager 8 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:29.320 or glance into city dock through a blank window. But Tuesday, 9 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:32.119 just after midnight, newly assigned to the supper section, the 10 00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:36.240 panel was wrong. The numbery was there, Nothing fancy, no 11 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:39.079 glowing symbol or cane frontage, just a plane that mate 12 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:41.920 button by the door. Even the size felt right, as 13 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:43.600 if my thumb had always laid up at fob, but 14 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:47.039 only now bothered to notice. I blinked and peeved closer. 15 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:49.719 I checked for a sticker or overlay, even felt the 16 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:52.920 edges with my thumbnail. The seven buttons were still patented 17 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.200 with the regular sleepy scratches of a century old vertical commute. 18 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:59.359 Eight matched perfectly, where as if it belonged but I'd 19 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:01.880 pulled late clean in this elevator every week for two years. 20 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:04.319 You develop a memory for this sort of thing, the 21 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:06.959 way the doors always wheeze. Afore the silence of O seven, 22 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:10.079 I pressed the new button. The rear lay inside, thunk 23 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:12.319 deep in the shaft, and the carriage rose, smooth and 24 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:16.840 punctual as ever, no lurch, no showy trammer. The panel 25 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.920 lamps twinkled up six, then seven, a beat longer between 26 00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:22.920 seven and which surely couldn't exist above it. My reflection 27 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:24.680 had gone fishing in the mirrored wall, the hum of 28 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:28.400 the cables tightening against some unseen ingredient floor. Its lamp 29 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:32.480 glowed a demure yellow. The doors opened brass again, but 30 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:34.799 knew here gleaming without the fine grid in every groove, 31 00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:37.760 carpet too soft and color sure to be anything but 32 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:40.840 early nineties. That buttery rose mauve shade they stopped using. 33 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:44.000 When Fact's machines moved out long hallway, quiet in a 34 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.120 way that didn't feel empty, but muffled. I heard nothing 35 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:50.200 at first, not even the machinery from below. It didn't 36 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:52.400 look like any other level. The wits were subtly off, 37 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:55.079 and I tasted the tingle of ozone, like protocopies left 38 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:58.519 running too long. Sometimes the building has a wrong hallway occorrid, 39 00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:00.680 or you can't picture in your mental map, no matter 40 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:02.760 how many times ye wiel your mop do and the rest. 41 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:07.200 No name plates, offices, but not glass, not like the 42 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:10.080 open plant re innovations on floors three and five. I 43 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.599 ran my hand over the velvet ropes corralling the elevator 44 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:16.000 bay ropes, and glanced down the length of all far 45 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:19.520 off a wall of frosted glass. Somewhere a lamp cast 46 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:22.840 soft circles of light onto gold trim doors. I stepped out, 47 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:26.680 the carpet bent forgivingly under my shoes. It was neither 48 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:29.280 cold nor warm, something in between, like a hotel at 49 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:31.680 three in the morning, or quiet funeral parlor just before 50 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:35.000 the first relatives arrive. No echo, no whiff of dust. 51 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:37.919 My heart wasn't pounding, but my scalp tingled with the 52 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:40.960 precise exhilarating disbelief you get when the world blunders ever 53 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.400 so slightly out of rhythm. I should have been unsettled, maybe, 54 00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:46.840 but in a city where every night holds a thousand 55 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:49.479 secrets of crumb and firewool and an offer as midnight snack, 56 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:52.080 janetor singing snatches of psalms in a dozen languages. I 57 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:55.280 felt only the hunger of a fresh question. I'd stepped 58 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:57.080 out onto a foe that, by all accounts and by 59 00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:00.280 my own lawn memory, simply wasn't there. From eight floors up, 60 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:03.560 the world look faintly smaller through the faded window glass, 61 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:05.960 another city, just slightly off weighted, beyond the brass and 62 00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:08.560 marble skin i'd known. I wanted to see how deep 63 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:11.960 them as match went. Most nights, people don't see janitors 64 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:14.599 as real parts of the buildings we move through. That's 65 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:16.800 the freedom of it invisibility, and the kind of senses 66 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:19.599 taker's license to know what's real, what's broken at which 67 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:23.319 co workers leave them out behind. Every Friday, on bright afternoons, 68 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:26.240 the Bellbank is all old world marble, golden gumrapper stuck 69 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:28.919 in scenes, and the faint perfume of insurance and legal ease. 70 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:32.039 But at night, I know every vent and closet, every 71 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.360 echo in the stairwell. Nothing surprises me, not even the 72 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:38.759 weird things people do when they think no one's watching Tonight. 73 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:41.639 As I eased back into routine past the marble directory, 74 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:44.759 I glanced sideways at the commemito plaque Belbank Building, nineteen 75 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:48.280 twenty three, seven stories of Progress. The sign itself was 76 00:03:48.319 --> 00:03:51.560 as familiar as my own badge. I sometimes start my 77 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:54.319 rounds here just to soak up the sweetest of surety weld, shrunked, 78 00:03:54.439 --> 00:03:56.759 jecklist and whistle, the kind of certainty you forget to 79 00:03:56.759 --> 00:03:59.800 crave until it's missing. Ramona the Knight's scurity, told me 80 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:02.240 once nothing's even you here. You just have to look 81 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.039 busy with they'll think up another inspection. She liked her 82 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:08.159 ran slow into stories, slower, half warning, half inside joke. 83 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:11.159 Any major change in the Bellbank's world, the new carpet, 84 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:13.639 a door moved two feet became the gossip of the decade. 85 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:17.680 Mister Hayashi, by contrasts, never forgot a detail. He was 86 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:19.560 nearly as old as a building, and roosted in his 87 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:22.920 six four architectural office with blueprints like religious scrolls, pausing 88 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:25.040 through the midnight to quiz me on the latest small change. 89 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.120 They painted that trim bright, That wasn't real oak. He 90 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:30.839 claimed this building had more design errors than the city's code. 91 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:32.879 I sometimes wondered if he'd invented them just to have 92 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:36.199 someone to correct. Among the cleaners we'd made a game 93 00:04:36.199 --> 00:04:38.800 of swapping ghost stories while swapping out trash bags or 94 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:42.279 a filling soap. Peter, my chift partner on even weeks 95 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:44.279 swore Room five hundred twelve had a file drawer that 96 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:46.800 closed itself and at once she left disinfected in a 97 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:48.800 lock kitchen, only to find it gun the next morning. 98 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:52.560 Thantyo of lasts about haunted filing cabinet, phantom tenants, on 99 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:56.240 hiring paperwork left and sign coffee mugs tel aported between floors. 100 00:04:56.959 --> 00:04:59.160 In a place as old as Bellbank, it's ritual to 101 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:01.279 tell two stories on every break, one about a misplaced 102 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:03.600 object and one about a ghost that moved it. But 103 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:06.439 routine was the bed rock. I kept the tight checklist, 104 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:10.839 gus trash, bathrooms, carpets. I locked every oddspill, every bolb out, 105 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:14.560 every impossible to explain puddle, usually just acy condensation. Anyway, 106 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:17.120 if I caught a new mystery, I wrote it up 107 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:19.319 from my own records, marking each shift to desk and 108 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:22.639 sticky door rbin explorer in rubber gloves. I love finding 109 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:24.759 the edges, but I didn't expect the world to bend 110 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:26.720 to whim. I just like knowing how many quarks could 111 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:29.319 be solved with the right tool. Tonight, nothing on the 112 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.079 checklist prepared me for pressing that eight. Back on the 113 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.600 first floor, I found Ramona perched on her stool at 114 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:38.079 the security bay, flipping through social feeds through the glass. 115 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:43.079 The street lights sukers goes shadows, all clear, sweep, she asked, mostly. 116 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:46.000 I eyed the cameras, no feed for a non existent 117 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.120 eighth floor. Hey, you ever seen the elevator hit eight? 118 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:53.000 She snorted. We're a seven story kind of place, kiddo. 119 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:55.519 If it hips, it skips the numbers entirely goes straight 120 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:58.600 to the service bay. A wink. You get to find 121 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:00.600 me a penthouse. We could use some for rush gossip. 122 00:06:01.399 --> 00:06:03.519 And just like that, the old rules returned to the 123 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:06.439 building as it should be, every story stacking clean. But 124 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:09.040 that golden hallway at those office doors I wanted more 125 00:06:09.079 --> 00:06:12.480 than stories. The elevator was waiting for me, empty as usual. 126 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:15.199 I moved quickly, not wanting to lose that sweet teste 127 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:19.160 of possibility. The panel. It was back to normal seven 128 00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:22.120 high as it went. Nothing extra a trick of light, 129 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:26.000 a late night wiring test from maintenance, maybe, But I'd 130 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:28.560 felt the carpet. How had that peculiar hush, seen the 131 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:31.720 angles s garline through the window, even the air was different. 132 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:35.639 What else could it be? Everyone jerked about sleepy mistakes, 133 00:06:35.800 --> 00:06:38.959 funhouse reflections, the tricks of too much disinfectants, bray late 134 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:42.800 at night. Still, something subtle had slit the leash. It 135 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:45.360 wasn't fear that made my hands restless, wiping the braast, 136 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:47.120 tuking up the log book for an extra jotting. It 137 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:49.519 was excitement. I resolved to see if it was just 138 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:51.959 a trick, I would go back up at the end 139 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.800 of my shift, same time. This time I'd bring my 140 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:57.959 phone on the ready, just in case. On my official route. 141 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:00.480 Belbank is a portrait of how building ages with people. 142 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.319 There are floors that proudly where their history four twos 143 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:06.199 marble Adrian flecked and softly pitted, where every summer cleaning 144 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:09.560 crew strips decades of shoe polish, the narrow sixth still 145 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:12.079 horn with peeriode prints, heavy wallnut doors coosing out the 146 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:15.879 drone of traffic. The elevator banks connect these territories, staging 147 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:18.160 little drum as a shift change or during fire drills, 148 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:21.639 Jokes about lost keys, grouts about overtime, whispers about which 149 00:07:21.639 --> 00:07:24.240 from missed its rent. The upper floor was a sacred 150 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:28.319 territory to after hour's staff. After midnight. We are soul witnesses, 151 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:31.680 entrusted with the particular intimacy of the buildings. Skeleton. Night 152 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:33.759 makes us bolder, pulling to our handles just in case, 153 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:36.759 peering into drop ceilings for leaks, fiddling with left over 154 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:39.560 calculaties and typewrit as someone meant to throw away last century. 155 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:43.399 I kept my routines close. Before long, I began to 156 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:46.839 look for clues more methodically. I paused at every elevator panel, 157 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:50.360 watching for a sign of temporary. I tried pushing older buttons. 158 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:54.439 No secret codes, no combinations yielded anything above seven. The 159 00:07:54.519 --> 00:07:56.480 number eight had been as solid as the others, but 160 00:07:56.600 --> 00:07:59.720 it was gone. A race without rescue or crease. Night 161 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:03.480 after night, the elevator remains stubbornly itself. I ran my route, 162 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:06.399 retraced my steps, waited past the hour when the floor 163 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:09.480 had first appeared. I scanned the marble log before signag 164 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:13.240 every map, every fire escape display was unchanged. The public 165 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:16.360 directory listed the odd private law office, the insurance agency, 166 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.040 the tax account, and none above the seventh floor. I 167 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:22.000 even stood mop in hand in front of the building's 168 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:25.600 historic plaque, willing it to admit anomaly. Seven stories of progress, 169 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.199 no update, no little brass disk in the shape of 170 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:32.200 an a disappointed but not defeated. These things are easier 171 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:34.639 to write off when you don't want to believe. Others 172 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:37.320 in my orbit had nothing to offer but laughter or sympathy. 173 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:41.559 When I asked Ramona again, her eyes sparkled. Elevator gossip, 174 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:44.240 EU janitors are getting cagy. I'll tell you this funny 175 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:46.600 stuff happens on graveyard chifs a coffee cup shows up 176 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:48.240 where you're sure you never put it, you chalk it 177 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:51.399 up to overtime. Plus Old Belbick's cables are from another ear. 178 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:54.440 Sometimes she just gets ideas. I saw Gida in some 179 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:56.600 of the afternoon crew by the vending machines on the 180 00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:59.200 loading dock, teasing each other about to go tenants and 181 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:02.679 warnings not to suitcases linger. They rolled their eyes when 182 00:09:02.679 --> 00:09:04.759 I asked, ever find lost mail for an eight floor 183 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:08.240 jokes about sweet thirteen and the real horrors of eighth 184 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:11.279 grade math, nothing but camaraderie and the pulse of share boredom. 185 00:09:11.559 --> 00:09:15.080 But mister Hayash he went penser, leaning on his cane 186 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:17.879 recalling forgotten elevators in sha high way or rooftop tea. 187 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:20.159 Rooms drifted in and out of existence, depending on the 188 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:22.559 whim of a landlord and the shape of city code. 189 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:26.519 Sometimes buildings borrow floor for luck, he mused, But never here, 190 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:28.840 not in Chicago. If any one would have tried, I'd 191 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:31.759 have noticed. I checked the custodial logs, no mention of 192 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:35.600 high floors, no routes beyond seven. My own checklists were neat, 193 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:37.200 as if stuffing down the urge to make up a 194 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:40.600 new line for something that refused description. Routine restored calm, 195 00:09:40.679 --> 00:09:43.720 but routine also makes room for obsession. Every time I 196 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:47.240 entered Belbank and each persisted, maybe precisely when I least 197 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:50.080 expected it, the eighth floor would slide into existence again. 198 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:53.200 Two nights later, I returned to the elevator alone, at 199 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:55.919 the same hour. The building breathed them tilly. My keys 200 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.120 jangle with the measured comfort of metal certainty. The panel 201 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:02.120 was as it should be, seven press buttons, each ringed 202 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:06.960 induled gilt. I waited, landing, silent, stack up nothing. A 203 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.679 week later, during a lull before the morning crew arrived, 204 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.320 I found myself standing on floor seven on the threshold 205 00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:15.519 beneath an ornate scamps. I felt foolish at first, but 206 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:18.840 curiosity always finds a way. I traced the shadows in 207 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:21.120 the wall, seeking something as seam dip in the plaster 208 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:24.840 while mis place grove that might betray a secret passage. Instead, 209 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:27.480 I found only a deeper, hush, muffled sound, thick air 210 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.279 of something quietly waiting at the far end of the hallway. 211 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:32.679 My gaze landed on a closet door, industrial gray handle, 212 00:10:32.759 --> 00:10:35.440 worn by generations of janitors, and unseen, I am sure 213 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:38.519 by a single tenant in forty years. My badge let 214 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:40.240 me in, but the closet was as it ever was, 215 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:43.279 shelf of forgotten cleansers, bucket in lonely vigil, one box 216 00:10:43.320 --> 00:10:46.600 of rubber cloths. I left the door slightly open, staring 217 00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:48.600 at the nothing behind it, half hoping to discover a 218 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:51.879 staircase going upward of something wildly out of place. A 219 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:54.240 stray sheet of paper peak from under a cabin, folded, 220 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:57.399 yellowed at the edges. On impulse, I pulled it free 221 00:10:57.879 --> 00:10:59.960 an office supply memmo and aiated except for a time 222 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:04.000 eight hundred five purious. The highest office number in my 223 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:07.600 rounds was seven hundred seventeen, so eight hundred five. Maybe 224 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:10.399 in the sprint may be a simple numbering error, but 225 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:13.279 it fit the contours of a growing mystery. I slipped 226 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:17.000 the minnow in my pocket. Finally, spring cleaning, I had 227 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:20.039 set myself the small, satisfying task of scrubbing the corners 228 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.759 of the old seventh floor. There I found a seam 229 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:25.320 in the wall near the stairwell. Not dry wall, but 230 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:27.360 a strange rubbery channel that looked as if a whole 231 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:29.799 section might once have pivoted open, or perhaps sealed up 232 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:33.120 a forgotten door. I tugged carefully, years of warnings about 233 00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:36.279 not damaging original fixtures echoing in my mind, but no luck. 234 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:39.000 I leaned my ear to the seam, half expecting a 235 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:41.480 draft of the peculiar hollow ring of empty space, but 236 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:44.600 only the normal chill of old insulation. Later I made 237 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:46.919 a note to check during the day, but at dawn, 238 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:49.279 when the first staff arrived, that section of wall look 239 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:53.279 completely imremarkable, straight as an arrow, painted and plaster and disturbed. 240 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:56.360 That's when contradictions bloomed, not just in my memory but 241 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:59.120 in the world around me. The eighth floor, dismissing half 242 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:02.320 remembered level appear as an idea more than once. How 243 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:04.559 many times had I ignored a stray office number, a 244 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:07.320 rumor about mis based files and uncollected package left at 245 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:10.279 the room floor. How often does a legacy building revise 246 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.799 its own story quietly slipping new layers over the cracks. 247 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:15.879 My own wall was small, circumscribed by checklist and the 248 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:19.720 limits of my rout. But human curiosity is unconstrained. Once 249 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:22.120 the line of normalcy ripples, you can't help but trace it, 250 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:24.679 tug on each oost read. So I began a more 251 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:29.519 deliberate investigation. First, I dove into the janitor's officer, musty, generouspace, 252 00:12:29.559 --> 00:12:32.559 cluttered with generations of lopocks schedules and a map of 253 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:35.559 the building taped to the desk. I trailed an index 254 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:38.759 finger along the meticulously drawn floors, seven broad rectangles, each 255 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:43.480 annotated with tenant names, closet locations, water rises, no escape 256 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:47.440 patch above seven. Even the emergency aches at plans thumbtacked 257 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.200 and sun faded, excluded any mention of higher office numbers. 258 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:54.039 I studied the cleaning roster over late shifts. No assignments 259 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:57.320 about seven hundred seventeen, nor notes about extra supplies going 260 00:12:57.360 --> 00:12:59.840 further up. For a moment, I wondered if those the 261 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:02.840 mere logic to it combined floors changed offices a type 262 00:13:02.840 --> 00:13:05.480 of error, but eight hundred five was too specific to 263 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:08.559 be a simple mistake. Next, I asked Ramona for fun 264 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.639 ever heard of sweet eight hundred five? She grinned, wide 265 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:16.039 eyebrows disappearing behind die bangs. Elevator jokes now too honeyed. 266 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:17.759 If a sweet like the paid rent, they would have 267 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:19.960 read on the fire escapes years ago. All this dale 268 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.440 in any old stack. Someone says there's a hidden office, 269 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:25.200 but no one collects the mail. Then, ever, the soy 270 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.799 teller she leaned in there used to be elevator mechanics 271 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:29.559 who claimed the phantom stop a. It said, your route 272 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:32.200 jumps tracks on windy nights, but nobody really knows, might 273 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:35.039 be the caffeine or your mob water. I trowled the 274 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:38.120 stairwells that night, fhloslight playing over each landing from lobby 275 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:40.639 all the way up. The signage ended with seven doorways 276 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:42.679 above that were blanks into block closed off with thick 277 00:13:42.679 --> 00:13:47.279 fire doors. Twice during later shifts attempted for productions. I'd 278 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.600 arrive at midnight following the same routine, same elevator, same badge, 279 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:54.279 form ready, but no weight, not even flicker were the 280 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:57.440 button not to be I documented everything, time of arrival, 281 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:00.000 specific cart used shoose one, whether my left or right 282 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:03.039 hand hit the call button first. I'd even noted what 283 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:07.120 pockets held keys paddens eluded me. I've returned to my 284 00:14:07.159 --> 00:14:10.120 original method of meticulous but flexible, varied order of floors. 285 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:12.559 Touched each wall as I swept the final pass, even 286 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:15.279 sang one of the old Polish workadet as Gitta favored half. 287 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:18.480 Believing in the power of routine magic on the upper floors, 288 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:21.639 I grew greedy for clues. On seven A few fixtures 289 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:24.559 of wallzkance the baseboarder looked anomalously old, pre war, at 290 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:28.360 least carved differently. I pressed around them, tested loose panels, 291 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:31.879 but nothing shifted. Still searching, I paid closer attention to 292 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:34.559 the contents of my route, especially near closets and abandoned 293 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:38.840 maintenance snooks. Such spots in old office towers often occupy 294 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:42.519 phuntom square footage. Once my flashlight picked out a fine 295 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:44.919 white seam running at a funny diagonal. Nothing to market 296 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:47.440 as newer repaired. Could it have been the ghost of 297 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:50.320 a block stair. One night I produced that memo for 298 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:54.120 eight hundred five. Nobody on day's staff recognized the office number. 299 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:56.519 If you droked about secret projects, denied toe of security, 300 00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:00.639 owedits gone wild. Most shrugged blank. More worryried about running 301 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:02.840 out of printer paper than picking apart another oddity in 302 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:06.080 the edifice. The secretary for the law firm laugh, well, 303 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:08.919 we have enough trouble finding seven hundred four. That's probably 304 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:12.240 all floors after seven. Pure myth, but a subtle effect followed. 305 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:16.600 Recollections from long time staff didn't quite fit together. Mister Hayashi, 306 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:18.840 button hold by the snack machine told me, did you 307 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:20.759 not there were proposals in the old city plan for 308 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:23.600 a roofed up garden, perhaps even another layer for the bellbank. 309 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:26.039 My father maintained blueprints here back in the sixties. So 310 00:15:26.120 --> 00:15:29.039 many ideas, so many never finished. I suppose if someone 311 00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:31.279 tried hard enough, they could dream up an extra floor. 312 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:34.080 Now and again, I pressed him about memories of offices 313 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:38.320 higher up. He shrugged. Memory is unreliable, specially in architecture. 314 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.120 Sometimes you remember a window that wasn't there. Sometimes you're 315 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:43.799 sure you climbed higher than you ever could else were 316 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:47.879 tenant's tales dissolved into jokes or confusion. One property manager insisted, 317 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:51.759 we lease what exists, nothing more, nothing less. What was 318 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.519 striking was the pattern wind press memories felt to contradiction 319 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:57.279 or avoidance, as though the building shape changed retroactively, to 320 00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:59.759 banish lost floors, to erase their trees from lived time. 321 00:16:00.440 --> 00:16:03.200 Each investigation, each person, each mac closed the door on 322 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:07.000 obvius explanations, yet each also grew. The mysteries reached brass 323 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:09.799 handles that didn't match, odd scenes, and the report of 324 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.559 deliveries to offices above seven that never arrived in any 325 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:15.559 one's mail books, at least not in hours. There was 326 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.679 no direct path upward, but there were lines, material traces, 327 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:21.879 stray jokes, and persistent deniles. There was the matter of 328 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:25.120 these lost offices, rooms that from time to time materialized 329 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:28.679 in rumor, paperwork, or half remembered night shifts. I now 330 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:31.679 investigation had become ritual, as much about piecing together a 331 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:34.559 social map of omission and memory as confronting anything physical, 332 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:38.240 And the patterns only deepened as weeks stacked up. I 333 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:41.480 turned to more durable evidence, paper trails, supply records, anything 334 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:44.720 that might slip past human regal. In the cleaning supply room, 335 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:47.879 a mess of old books and correspondents formed a silent arcave. 336 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:51.159 I flipped through brittle cleaning schedules, checking off patterns of 337 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:54.600 routine pagescolled in a dozen hands, some familiar as there 338 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:58.440 is unknown even to mister Hayashi. Supply less confirmed mob orders, 339 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.480 garbage bags, and on certain months a recurring entry of 340 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:04.480 eighth floor windows open or Office eight hundred five were fills. 341 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:09.680 Sometimes the order span decades between entries. Dayshift supervisor's noted 342 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.640 eight hundred five sea attached request, yet attached sheets had 343 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:16.119 been long since torn free, the most recent among them 344 00:17:16.200 --> 00:17:20.119 just two years prior. A familiar handwriting someone I faintly remembered, 345 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:23.079 a part timer who left for grad school. This detail 346 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:25.319 was both promising and deeply odd. No one had of 347 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:28.279 acclaimed duty up stairs, but the documentation was there, as 348 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:32.039 solid as any modern email. More supply receipts, cross reference 349 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:35.240 for sticky notes, and tourner approvals, march for eighth as 350 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:37.720 is such an office Sweet eight hundred five existed openly 351 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:40.920 in both the recent and distant past. Long past midnight, 352 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:42.559 on a slow night, I made my way again to 353 00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:45.039 the seventh floor. The odd seam in the wall near 354 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:48.160 the utility closet now seemed even nought a weighted by implication, 355 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:51.920 I press gently, moving along the coal surface, half believing 356 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:55.440 that resolve or intention my shift the building's fabric to night. 357 00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:58.440 The closet was locked. The next it was opened, but 358 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.400 the inside was tight modern unperfunctory. Once I returned to 359 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:05.079 find that patch of the wall entirely seamless, no clause. 360 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:07.319 It had all just smooth, recent pain, as if some 361 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:09.319 one had erased the entire space from the universe of 362 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:12.519 a night. By the next Tuesday, just after three, working 363 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:15.680 my extra hours, I spied the door slightly ajar draw 364 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:18.759 of spare bulbs open, two walks, skin of coffee, but 365 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:21.319 behind a half drawn bucket. I glimpsed a small wooden 366 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:24.640 stair narrows those in attic flats. My heart skipped too 367 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:28.319 quick for fear only electric curiosity. I squeezed through, careful 368 00:18:28.359 --> 00:18:30.960 not to scrape my shirt, and crept up four shallow steps, 369 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:34.440 but just above a panel of ply would block further passage. 370 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:37.000 With the rough simed reading do not store maintenance only 371 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:41.039 above a draft, I unlatched the chapter alike dryer, not 372 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:44.720 attic like, and faint wearing. Help kindled another level, but 373 00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:47.640 the space opened to nothing more than tight piping, gray insulation, 374 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:51.519 heat pumps, utility coalspice entirely inadequate, and certainly not large 375 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:54.880 enough to house an entire office floor. I squatted, peering 376 00:18:54.920 --> 00:18:57.039 into the gloom, wishing for any clear dropped letter, a 377 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:00.839 business card, a mug with eight hundred fife painted on it. Instead, 378 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:03.079 only coils of wire, the stair or room of forgotten 379 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:05.880 lunch rappers. A shoe is probably closed by Janetor's past. 380 00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:09.119 I shrugged and gently closed the door, feeling the same 381 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:13.279 soft click of possibility denying itself. Yet the oddness was persistent. 382 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:17.240 The closet sometimes there, sometimes not night to night. The 383 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:20.799 sense of spatial stability had been surged. Now. If you'd asked, 384 00:19:20.839 --> 00:19:22.799 I'd have said the eight flour was less location than 385 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:25.319 a possibility stretch of routine. At every once in a while, 386 00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:28.880 the building's intentions nearly completed, like a song stop mid 387 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.880 phras er story that only emerges in the telling. Fumbling 388 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:34.599 for an explanation, I remembered something I'd once heard from Ghita. 389 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:37.039 Some spaces exist out of habit if nobody enters a 390 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:39.359 room long enough, it forgets what it was supposed to be. 391 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.519 The eighth floor then was less about sneaking up pidden 392 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:44.839 stairs or catching a lost office number. Perhaps it was 393 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:47.799 a kind of unfinished business, decrease in the predictability of maintenance, 394 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:51.680 repetition and hope. After all, paperwork lives on and routine 395 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:54.759 itself as both memory and magic. Still, I want to 396 00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:57.480 proof something objectively persuasive. So I turned to the last roum, 397 00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:00.319 not yet thoroughly plundered blueprints, the silent home ropes and 398 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:03.519 final truce of every building. Of all the residents of Balbank, 399 00:20:03.640 --> 00:20:06.440 mister Hayashi was the only one with unfettered access to 400 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:09.200 the bells of historical planning. I passed by on a night. 401 00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:11.720